As I watched the first season of LOTR: TROP I was amazed at the scope and beauty of the production. Incredible environments, vast landscapes and sweeping shots. Meticulously made sets, designs, props and costumes, and fantastic top-of-the-line special effects, CGI and animations. A real treat for the eyes.
The script on the other hand, is problematic. While the overarching main plot is reasonably good, the problem lies with the tempo and gravitas of the scenes that build the individual scenes. Specifically, every scene, and almost every single line ever spoken has the weight of life-and-death, good versus evil, fate of middle earth and all races in it.
And I do mean every scene.
A character cannot say hello without a dramatic pause, followed by a line such as: "in our language, we don't say hello. We say fluggely-mugguly, which means 'may the light of dawn show you the way of righteousness' " followed by meaningful looks, cinematic music and a sweeping shot.
Now repeat that same vibe a thousand times.
Every. Scene.
It gets tedious real fast.
I understand that LOTR is about epic struggles in it's core, but this heavy-handed treatment of these issues make it melodramatic and distance the viewer, rather than draw him in with the intricacies and nuances of small intimate moments- as they project into life's greatest questions.
Is it worth watching then?
It is, but as they say: "A bird will fly to the sun as the leaf falls to the earth. Just as good will triumph over evil, so will our toils forever stain the ground with the sweat of our forefathers" (meaningful look, sweeping shot, climactic cinematic music)
The script on the other hand, is problematic. While the overarching main plot is reasonably good, the problem lies with the tempo and gravitas of the scenes that build the individual scenes. Specifically, every scene, and almost every single line ever spoken has the weight of life-and-death, good versus evil, fate of middle earth and all races in it.
And I do mean every scene.
A character cannot say hello without a dramatic pause, followed by a line such as: "in our language, we don't say hello. We say fluggely-mugguly, which means 'may the light of dawn show you the way of righteousness' " followed by meaningful looks, cinematic music and a sweeping shot.
Now repeat that same vibe a thousand times.
Every. Scene.
It gets tedious real fast.
I understand that LOTR is about epic struggles in it's core, but this heavy-handed treatment of these issues make it melodramatic and distance the viewer, rather than draw him in with the intricacies and nuances of small intimate moments- as they project into life's greatest questions.
Is it worth watching then?
It is, but as they say: "A bird will fly to the sun as the leaf falls to the earth. Just as good will triumph over evil, so will our toils forever stain the ground with the sweat of our forefathers" (meaningful look, sweeping shot, climactic cinematic music)